Learning the Will of Fire
Chapter One
The sound of the explosion was almost deafening, waking most from their slumber. It was thankfully not in the village but close enough that it was heard. Those who were awake witnessed the sky fill with fire, then wind and water, and finally lightning in quick succession. Before people could panic, the sky fell silent and nothing moved.
It was then that the Hokage sent people to investigate. He sent only two chunins, Kotetsu and Izumo, to the blast site and told them to call for backup if needed. The two ninjas set off and as they grew nearer to the location, they noticed the burned trees and other debris strewn about. They searched the blast radius, trying to find whatever caused the explosion but found nothing. They were about to call off the mission until they reached the center of the blast.
"Izumo! Come look at this!"
Tsunade was working overtime in the Hidden Leaf Hospital that night, doing research on new medical ninjutsu. Although she was retired, Tsunade did occasionally go to the hospital to brush up on her knowledge, not wanting to fall behind the new generation. She then let out sigh.
"I'm getting too old for this," Tsunade mumbled to herself. She was so engrossed in her literature that she did not immediately hear the explosion in the distance. When she did, she stopped for a moment but continued working, assuming nothing was wrong. If there was, someone would have came and got her. Tsunade worked for another hour before there was a knock on the door. "Come in."
"Lady Tsunade," Shizune started, as she opened the door, "you need to come see this."
The two kunoichis walked down the hospital corridor, arriving a room with Kotetsu and Izumo standing outside of it.
"What happened?" Tsunade asked.
"That explosion," Izumo started, "the blast radius was almost 30 meters…"
"Was there any causalities?"
"Thankfully no," Kotetsu answered, "but…"
"But what?" Tsunade asked. Kotetsu then gestured for her to follow him into the room. In there, there was a small girl, no older than five years old, lying unconscious in a hospital bed.
"We found her in the center of the blast," Izumo explained, "surprisingly with no injuries." Tsunade walked over to the bed and performed a chakra scan on the girl. Tsunade gasped.
"Shizune, get a medical team in here, stat!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Shizune said before darting out the room.
"What's wrong?" Kotetsu asked.
"She has no external injuries but has substantial internal injuries," Tsunade explained. "Just carrying her here probably cause severe bruising."
Shizune later return with the medical team and began healing her. Tsunade volunteered to watch over her for the night, claiming to have nothing else to do. She really was interested how the injuries the girl sustained were only internal if she was caught in the blast. Tsunade stayed in the hospital room but continued doing research when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," Tsunade said distracted.
"Lady Tsunade, interesting to finding you here."
"Kakashi," Tsunade said, relieved. "What brings the Hokage here?"
"Kotetsu and Izumo told me the situation about this girl," Kakashi replied. "It's amazing she survived a blast that big at all." Tsunade nodded in agreement then the two sat in silence. Then Tsunade broke the silence.
"What are you thinking about, Kakashi?"
"I'm wondering if this girl knows what caused the explosion…"
"You're not thinking about sending this girl to the Intel unit, are you?" Kakashi shrugged.
"Children have been used to infiltrate and spy on villages before," Kakashi said, thinking of a particular shamisen player from his past.
"She's only a most likely won't get any information forciblely."
"What are you saying?" Kakashi asked.
"I'm saying that there's a better way to gain information from a child than having her mind probed," Tsunade said.
"What do you suggest then?" He asked. Tsunade shrugged.
"I can watch over her for the time being and get you what you need to know.
"Are you sure? You don't have to…"
"It's fine," Tsunade said, "I just don't want to traumatize the child anymore than she has to be."
"YOU DID WHAT?"
"I only agreed to watch over the kid," Tsunade explained to Shizune, shrugging. "It's no big deal."
"No big deal? Lady Tsunade, this is a child! You have no business taking care her! What were you thinking?"
"Calm down, Shizune," Tsunade hissed, leaning against the door frame outside of the room. "It's only temporary. Only until I get the information I promised Kakashi and get the girl to the proper custody." Shizune let out an exasperated sigh.
"Lady Tsunade…"
"Who would you have suggested then?" Tsunade asked, crossing her arms.
"I don't know...Maybe Sakura…"
"No," Tsunade said, "she already has a child of her own. In fact, many of the people I would have asked have a family of their own and asking them to take in an extra child would be a burden on them, no matter how temporary the stay."
"But why did you volunteer?" Shizune asked. Tsunade shrugged.
"I was bored; it would give me something to do for the time being."
"Lady Tsunade!" Tsunade chuckled before peering into the hospital room.
"How do you suppose this girl survived the blast?" Tsunade asked, "From what I gathered, it was a powerful explosion." Shizune shook her head.
"I'm not sure," she responded, "maybe she absorbed some of the impact."
"No," Tsunade said, "because two things would have happened: she still would have external injuries and a blast that powerful would have ruptured her internal organs." Then she glanced at the girl again, "You don't suppose she caused the blast, do you?" Shizune stood in silence.
"It's possible," Shizune finally stated. Then Tsunade chuckled.
"And what better person to watch over her than the former Hokage?" Shizune shook her head.
"Lady Tsunade, you're almost seventy…"
"I'm in my mid-sixties," Tsunade corrected.
"I'm saying," Shizune continued, "that you're getting too old to-"
"Nonsense," Tsunade said. "Like I said, it's temporary so I wouldn't worry about it."
"You wouldn't worry about it," Shizune pointed out, "but I imagine it would only take you a short time to corrupt the poor girl."
"What do you think I'm going to do? Offer her a drink?"
"Not necessarily that," Shizune said, "but it doesn't take long for children to pick up bad habits of the adults around them." Tsunade dismissively waved her hand.
"Please, I'm an amazing role model." Tsunade said before walking off. Shizune rolled her eyes.
"Right…"
Hello, hello! So I guess I'm back and I'm going to try to rewrite a very old story I wrote. I kind of want to flesh it out, change a few things, add a few things, and also move the timeline over a bit. Hopefully, you guys will enjoy this version a lot more! See you next time!
